The ‘re-wilding’ course helping empower Hong Kong’s young women and teach them ‘to step into their full power’
- Women have been conditioned ‘not to assert themselves’, says organiser Jasmine Nunns, who is determined to change that
- The six-day programme will train girls aged between 11 and 14 to face the challenges they face at school or in their future workplaces
Building shelters out of natural materials, whittling sticks to use as tent pegs and making adornments from plants are not common pursuits in a busy city such as Hong Kong, but they are all activities that feature in the programme of a six-day nature immersion course aimed at young women.
Wilderness expert Jasmine Nunns, 34, is the brains behind Kembali, which organises forest bathing and wild swimming adventure days that reconnect Hongkongers with the natural world.
Offering a new course, for girls aged 11 to 14, she hopes to instil practices, techniques and habits that will carry them through any challenges life throws at them – be they in the forest, classroom or the workplace.
The immersion, she says, is “giving girls the tools to be able to express themselves in a way that they may not have been able to before”.
For the Hong Kong-born guide, who has been running experiential programmes with schools, companies and charities for 12 years, focusing on girls was important.
“Women and girls have been conditioned not to assert themselves,” she says. “I’m trying to allow girls to see that it’s OK and important to step into their full power. Part of that is transforming our understanding of our bodies in an environmental space: it’s less about what we look like to other people but more the function of our body and what we’re capable of doing in a natural setting.”
